Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/431

Mallet Cornhill, and afterwards became a Jeweller in Princes (now Wardour) Street, Leicester Square. The family soon moved to 4 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, where the mother opened a school for girls. After two years' preliminary education under Thomas Bailey, an independent minister, at Hitchin, and five years' training at Wymondley House, John Philip was from June to November 1817 independent minister at Wem in Shropshire. Receiving an allowance on Dr. Williams's foundation, he entered the university of Glasgow in November 1817, and in April 1819 graduated B.A. He now became minister of a presbyterian congregation which met in Hanover Street Chapel, London, but adopting Arian views he resigned in 1822. In the same year he went to Leeds, where he carried on a day-school with success, and for a time served as domestic chaplain to Mrs. Rachael Milnes of Frystone Hall, Yorkshire, grandmother of the first Lord Houghton. In 1827, while on a preaching expedition to Bristol, he met Dr. James Martineau, who was a friend for the remainder of his life. In 1829 Malleson left Leeds on becoming minister of a unitarian chapel in the New Road, Brighton. He also conducted a large school at Hove House. He retired in 1860 to Croydon, and died on 16 March 1869. He was buried in the Marylebone cemetery, Finchley. Malleson was a good preacher, and wielded much influence among unitarians. He was one of Dr. Williams's trustees. He married, 14 Jan. 1823, Anna Sophia, daughter of William Taylor of London, and granddaughter of Henry Taylor [q. v.], author of ‘The Apology of Ben Mordecai.’ 

MALLET, originally MALLOCH, DAVID (1705?–1765), poet and miscellaneous writer, born near Crieff in Perthshire, was probably the second son of James Malloch of Dunruchan, a well-to-do tenant-farmer on Lord Drummond's Perthshire estate, a Roman catholic, and a member of the outlawed clan Macgregor (cf., Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886). His mother's christian name was Beatrix, but her surname is unknown. The household was on intimate terms with the Drummond family, and suffered with them during the troubles of 1715 and 1745. David, who gave his age as twenty-eight in 1733 (ib.), and was therefore born about 1705, seems to have been educated at the parish school of Crieff under John Ker, afterwards classical master in the high school of Edinburgh and professor at Aberdeen and Edinburgh. In 1717 he was acting as janitor in the high school of Edinburgh at a salary of 20l. Scots per annum. In 1720 he became resident tutor to the sons of Mr. Home of Dreghorn, in return for ‘learning, clothes, and diet, but no fixed salary.’ He held the post till 1723, studied at the same time at the university of Edinburgh (1721–2, 1722–3), and formed a friendship with a fellow-student, James Thomson, author of ‘The Seasons.’ In July 1723 he accepted the post of tutor to the sons of the Duke of Montrose, at a salary of 30l. per annum. Leaving the university without a degree, he went in August to London, and thence to the duke's seat at Shawford, near Winchester. He lived on good terms with the family till 1731, residing chiefly at London and Shawford. Early in 1727 he made a continental tour with his pupils; and he was again abroad in 1735 (, Works, x. 90, &c.)

Mallet had published a ‘Pastoral’ in the ‘Edinburgh Miscellany’ in 1720; and during his college days, emulating the example of Allan Ramsay, who had just ‘wrote himself into some kind of fame,’ and probably under Thomson's influence, he produced a number of short pieces, including an imitation of Milton, entitled ‘The Transfiguration,’ first published in the ‘Edinburgh Magazine’ in 1793 (ii. 339). Shortly before his engagement with the Montrose family he composed the ballad of ‘William and Margaret’ (see Poems, ed. 1877, ii. 283), which was published first anonymously in black-letter (Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 411), and afterwards in 1724, in Ramsay's ‘Tea-Table Miscellany,’ i. 143, and Aaron Hill's ‘Plain Dealer,’ No. 36. Further short poems followed, mostly written for his friend Professor Ker; and in February 1725 he wrote verses on ‘Mira,’ ‘a very fine woman,’ the ‘Clio’ of his friend Thomson (, Poems, Aldine edit. i. cxliv). Next year (11 Jan.) he received the honorary degree of M.A. from the university of Aberdeen, ostensibly for an English poem in imitation of Ker's ‘Donaides.’ For Thomson's poem on ‘Winter,’ published in March 1726, he wrote a dedication to Sir Spencer Compton (, Anecdotes), and some verses for the second edition (, Poems, xl, clx). He had himself written, early in 1725, a poem on the same subject, which was praised by Thomson; and on his return from the continent he prepared for the press ‘The Excursion,’ in two books, which he had written in 1726.

On 5 Sept. 1724 Mallet wrote to Ker that he had been advised to change his name and to adopt the form Mallet, ‘for there